Open Road Ace for TSD rally and regularity

May 15, 2026 · 6 minute read

TSD scoring is brutal in its simplicity: one point per second early or late at every checkpoint. Regularity events use the same math. Whoever holds the average closest to the target wins. Open Road Ace is the iOS app for drivers who want that average to be a fraction of a second off, not five.

What this number means

On the morning of May 14, 2026, ORA's developer ran four target-time laps on a 1.675-mile course in Memorial Park, Houston. The setup was an iPhone paired over Bluetooth to an ArduSimple simpleRTK2B receiver, with RTK corrections streaming over NTRIP from a nearby NEAR-SPARTN reference station. The third lap finished +0.146 seconds and +10.7 feet from the target time on a course just over a mile and a half long.

In TSD-rally terms: that's 0.146 penalty points at a single checkpoint, on a leg most events would consider short. A rally computer that delivers that kind of error budget on a $1,500 hardware bill is doing exactly what it was built to do. A $29.99 iPhone app doing the same thing — without a dedicated screen, without a custom enclosure, without a single proprietary chip — is a different kind of pitch.

"It's basically a Timewise that fits in your pocket and costs less than a tire."

The TSD scoring math, in case it isn't obvious

For drivers who don't run TSD or regularity events: scoring penalizes you one point per second of error at each checkpoint. The lowest score wins. A perfect run is zero. Every second you arrive early or late at a checkpoint adds a point to your total.

In practice, a top-tier finish in a national-class TSD event is single-digit points across an entire weekend of competition. Veteran teams have walked away from events with eight points across a 300-mile route — meaning they were on target, on average, within eight seconds total. That number is the standard ORA is built to hit.

Regularity events used in vintage rallies (Great Race, Colorado Grand, Vintage Rallies LLC) use the same penalty structure, often scored to fractions of a second on hand-checked stages. Hemmings Great Race competitors routinely run dedicated rally computers costing $300-1000 because the scoring tolerances reward precision that hand-timing simply cannot achieve.

How Open Road Ace works for a TSD competitor

The model is the same one we use for open-road racing: a virtual rabbit moves along the course polyline at the leg's target speed. Your job is to keep the rabbit close. The app shows you, in feet, how far ahead or behind you are at every moment. Match the rabbit and you cross the next checkpoint at the right time.

Course import

Import any GPX file as a custom course. Define checkpoints by dropping pins or recording them on a setup pass. The app handles the geometry — including the antenna-offset correction that determines whether your finish time reflects where your antenna is or where the nose of the car is, which on a 100-mph leg can mean a 1-2 foot timing error that matters.

Live pace display

Big-number display optimized for in-car visibility: current delta in seconds, target speed for the current leg, distance to the next checkpoint, and an at-a-glance ahead/behind indicator. Designed to be read by a driver who's also driving, or by a navigator who's also doing pace math. CarPlay support is in progress (entitlement pending with Apple as of May 2026).

Multi-leg events

Built for two-leg open-road events from day one, which means multi-stage TSD routes are well-handled. Cumulative delta is tracked across legs. Each leg can have its own target speed. Auto-offset between legs handles the transit time honestly — no fudge factors.

Privacy and offline

No servers, no analytics, no tracking, no ads. Everything runs on-device. The only network traffic the app makes is the optional NTRIP stream for RTK corrections — which is opt-in, configurable, and only relevant if you've connected an ArduSimple receiver. Your race data stays on your phone unless you choose to export it.

Hardware matrix

Open Road Ace works with five GPS sources, ranked roughly by accuracy:

For most TSD competitors entering regional and national events, a RaceBox Mini is the right starting point. Drivers running events scored to fractions of a second on short legs — Great Race, Vintage Rallies tours, regularity events at vintage festivals — should look hard at an ArduSimple kit. The +0.146 second validation number above is what that kit delivers in practice.

How ORA compares to traditional rally computers

The rally-computer market hasn't seen a meaningful new entrant in years. Timewise, Alfa, Monit, and Brantz computers do their job well, but they're purpose-built devices that have always commanded purpose-built prices. The honest comparison:

Important framing: ORA is a pace tool, not a scoring tool. Richta Competitor — which most US TSD events use for scoring — does something different from what ORA does. Richta tells you, after a checkpoint, what penalty you earned. ORA tells you, before the checkpoint, exactly where to be to earn zero. They're complements, not competitors. Run Richta for the official event score and ORA on a phone-mount for the live pace cue.

Against the hardware computers — Timewise, Alfa, Monit, Brantz — the question is honest: do you want a $1,000 single-purpose device, or do you want a $30 app on the phone you already carry? For new competitors and weekend-rally regulars, ORA is the obvious answer. For drivers running national-class events week after week with dedicated rally seats wired into their car, the hardware computers are real instruments with real ergonomics that an iPhone touchscreen can't replicate. ORA's job isn't to replace those — it's to make the precision they deliver available to drivers who can't justify the spend.

Events ORA is built for

• SCCA RoadRally — Press On Regardless (Detroit), US RoadRally Challenge, regional series across the country.
• Vintage Rallies LLC — New England 1000, Texas 1000, Mountain Mille, Forza Mille.
• Hemmings Great Race — 2,300-mile cross-country TSD; sold out 2026.
• Colorado Grand — 1,000-mile Rockies tour, 37th anniversary.
• Alcan 5000 Rally — 5,388 miles across Alaska/Canada.
• NEOhio SCCA Winter Rally — running since 1966.
• PCA, NNJR-PCA, JCNA regularity series and time-and-distance events.
• Open-road races — BBORR, Silver State Classic Challenge, Sandhills Open Road, Nevada Open Road Challenge.

The app's course-import flow handles any GPX file, so any event that publishes a route — or any organizer who can give competitors a track — can be paced with ORA.

How to start

The app is $29.99 on the App Store, available in the United States. iPhone or iPad, iOS 17.6 or later. The first time you launch it, a setup wizard walks you through: pick a course (or import a GPX), set a target time, pick a GPS source, and confirm your antenna offset. Most users are running their first lap inside ten minutes.

If you're considering it for a specific event and want to talk through whether ORA fits your scoring rules and hardware, email [email protected]. Real answers, no sales script.

Open Road Ace is built and maintained by KyrosWorks LLC. The validation numbers in this article come from a documented test session in Memorial Park, Houston, on May 14, 2026, with full track logs archived. The hardware comparison prices reflect typical 2026 market rates for new equipment from the named manufacturers.